Ikot Abasi is located in the south west corner of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It is bounded by Oruk Anam Local Government Area in the north, Mkpat Enin and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. The Imo River forms the natural boundary in the west separating it from Rivers State.
People
The people of Ikot Abasi are made up of the Ibibio ethnic group with diverse cultural heritage and tradition. They speak the Ibibio language.
Ikot Abasi is made up of five clans namely: Ikpa Edemaya Clan, Ikpa Ibekwe Clan, Ikpa Nnung Assang Clan, Ukpum Ette Clan and Ukpum Okon Clan.
Ikpa Nnung Assang Clan
It has three (3) political wards which comprise Nine(10) villages namely;
Essene
Ikot Imoh
Ikot Akpa Enin
Ikot essang
Nduk
Akpabom
Ikot eduoho
Ndak Ekom
Ikot Ada udo
Ikot Akpa idiang
It has three (3) political wards which together comprise
Edemaya
It has three political wards which together comprise twenty-three (23) villages namely;
Atan Eka Iko
Atan Ikpe
Ediduo
Iboro
Ikot Aboa Nd
Ikot Akpabio
Ikot Akpan
Ikot Efre
Ikot Eneni
Ikot Etenge Ndom
Ikot Eyen Imo
Ikot Ikara
Ikot Iyire
Ikot Ndien
Ikot Obio Akpan
Ikot Obio Ekpe
Ikot Oboro Enyin
Ikot Okpok
Ikot Ubo Akama
Ikot Ufot
Ikot Unya
Ikot Uso Ide
Ukan
Towns in Ikpa Ibekwe
Ata Udo-Usung
Ikot Aba
Ikot Abasi
Ikot Akpan-Ata
Ikot Essien
Ikot Etetuk
Ikot Obong
Ikot Ukpo-Inua
Ikpetim and
Uta Ewa
History
Because of its location at the break in the mangrove swamp and rain forest of the eastern Niger River delta, it was a collecting point for slaves in the 19th century. In 1870, Jubo Juboha came to Ikot Abasi and founded the kingdom of Opobo. He was a former Igbo (Ibo) slave.
Ikot Abasi, a community in then Calabar Province, for good reasons. Although Ikot Abasi, formerly part of the famed Opobo Kingdom, was already on the world map before 1929, the women's uprising against Nigeria's colonial rulers in 1929 was to provide a further push into prominence for this town, then already popular as the site of a famous boat yard, seat of a British consulate and part of the late King Jaja's area.
Three-quarters of a century ago, Ikot Abasi was one of a number of towns in both Calabar and Owerri provinces, whose women bravely took exception to what they considered exploitative excesses of the British rulers of the then non-independent Nigeria.
In 1995, the year of that famed Beijing conference, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos (NGA) put out a very important book, The women's revolt of 1929. The book, which features contributions from notable academics like Prof. Monday E. Noah, Prof. Obaro Ikime and Chief N.U. Akpan, among others, reminds that one of the women killed by the colonial forces during the 1929 protest was the mother of a boy, Egbert. That lad would later grow into a famous jurist and administrator (Justice Egbert Udo Udoma). Such was the impact of the reforms that trailed the woman's protest that the March 8, 1933 issue of the Daily Times described the changes as "the great charter of liberty for the people". But the prize did not come easy. Prof. M. E. Ekpo, another of the book's contributors, revealed that in the Calabar Province alone, more than 53 people were killed beside over 50 others injured.
Launched in 1989, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the uprising, The women's revolt of 1929 is an anthology of select papers from a national symposium on the subject, which took place in Port-Harcourt in 1982. According to Dr Paul Chike Dike, editor of the anthology, "An attempt by the (protesting) women to move nearer the colonial troops led to the order to shoot, in which over 24 women were killed".